Tag: eternity

When we’re trying to get somewhere, we need to ask and answer a few questions…

Where we are now?

Where do we want to be?

What is the way to get from one to the other?

As Christians, we know that we live in a broken world (where we are) and long to get to our eternal home in heaven (where we want to be).

The way to get there is the remaining question. In the answer there is no road map, no turn-by-turn directions, just Jesus Himself.

“In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.”

John 14:2-3 (NIV)

When a wagon train of pioneers wasn’t sure what lay ahead or what direction to go, they would send scouts ahead to test out the available routes and determine the best way to reach the next destination point. When the scouts returned, they would lead the entire group on the way they had chosen. Jesus went ahead for us by suffering and dying on the cross, paying the penalty for our sins, and then rising from the dead and ascending to heaven. Jesus promised to come back and take us to where He had gone, just as a good scout would. But Jesus was not playing the role of a good scout here. He was doing something quite different. I don’t know about you, but I’m not particularly interested in taking the path Jesus took. Thankfully, we don’t have to. Jesus’ going ahead in His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension and His coming back was not intended to show us the way. It was intended to show us that He was the way (John 14:6). Because He travelled this path, we don’t have to! And it’s a good thing too. We are not qualified to travel that path. Any attempt on our part to travel that path on our own would be met with failure and separation from God. (read “For God So Loves You” for more about this.) When Jesus comes back, He will not take us down the path he chose, but will take us on a route that bypasses His path altogether.

Isn’t it amazing to know that when the time comes for us to go to be in His Father’s house, Jesus Himself will usher us through the front door?! Let’s look at the questions that usually come up about that moment.

When will it be?
Jesus emphatically taught that no one knows when He will return (Matthew 24:36). So the question is un-answerable. But there are key points in time that we know are critical:

1. Now!
Since we don’t know when Jesus will return, every second the clock ticks is an eligible candidate. Treat each moment as though it might be the one! Be ready!

2. When we die
When our life on earth is over, our opportunities to accept Him as Savior and Lord will have passed. If we have chosen Him, He will come back and take us to His Father’s house so we can be there with Him forever!

3. When He returns at His second coming
Some of humankind will be alive on this earth when Jesus returns to usher in the new age. At this time, if we have chosen Him, rather than taking us to His Father’s house, He will bring His Father’s house to us!

What will His Father’s house be like? There have been a few prophets over the course of history that have been allowed to see the Father’s house and return to tell us about it. Their collective descriptions make one thing clear – it is beyond description. These men dazzle us with imagery, numbers, creatures, and signs to try to put what they’ve seen into words. The terms are so ‘out of this world’ that they can be some of the most confusing passages in all of scripture. What we can derive from them is that the Father’s house is a place of amazing power, beauty, worship, light, and peace. While we struggle to grasp just what it will be like, it might be helpful to remember the most important part of it all – Jesus will be there with us and we will be there with Him forever. When you get right down to it, everything else really isn’t that important, is it? That’s the truth.

In My Father’s house are many rooms. I am going ahead to prepare one of those rooms especially for you. When the time is right, I will come back and you and I will go together to this wonderful place. You need not travel any other way, for I AM The Way for you.

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”

You have been raised.

That doesn’t seem right, does it? You are clearly still here on earth, breathing the earth’s air, standing upon its ground, driving on its roadways, fighting against its nastiness and challenges. If you’re like me, you’d love to be raised, and are looking forward to that day. But until then, you keep on slogging through life in the world.

God has a different perspective. It is God’s perspective that Paul relies on in this passage. God is the God of eternity. God is not bound by space or time, so He sees things from outside those constraints. And in His eternal view, if you have received the gift of His grace, through faith in Jesus, you are there with Him. What is in the future for you, is in the “now” for Him. Isn’t that crazy and exciting to think about?

Equipped with this understanding, you can set your heart on that state of being—the state of being eternally in God’s presence, forever in His Kingdom. With this “heart-setting” firmly in place, you can adopt this state of being in your life on earth each and every day, being the presence of God for those hurting souls around you and advancing the borders of His Kingdom wherever you go.

When we think of receiving an inheritance, we think of someone dying and leaving things to us. When God promises an inheritance to us, it’s a different ball game. Yes, Jesus died for our sins and through that death an inheritance can be passed to us. But, that’s where the comparison stops. Jesus’ resurrection changed everything else about our eternal inheritance.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you”

1 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV)

The process of passing down an inheritance was very important in biblical times. Fathers owned the family’s assets and passed them down as an inheritance to his surviving family as specifically directed by the God’s Law when he died. Land was most precious as it was the means for making a living, for grazing animals or raising crops. Similarly, and even more importantly, God, our heavenly father, has an inheritance to pass on to us. Let’s look at our passage from 1 Peter where we will encounter all of the very basic conditions for an inheritance to be passed. Along the way let’s be sure to understand who’s responsible for each part, and what God’s inheritance looks like. The first condition, of course, is a death; in order for an inheritance to be left, someone has to die…

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

God came down to the earth in the human form of Jesus for a singular, glorious purpose—to live a sinless life and pay the death penalty for the sins of humankind. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, His death initiated the eternal process by which His inheritance could be passed to us, but that’s as far as God goes. We have to do the rest. Which brings us to the next fundamental condition—surviving family.

New Birth into a Living Hope

In order for an inheritance to be passed down, there must be living family members to pass it to. This sounds ridiculously obvious, but there’s more than meets the average worldly eye going on here. You see, being born of a human mother, qualifies us for neither being alive nor being a member of God’s family. We are not born into God’s family, we are re-born into it. When, and only when, we accept God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord do we become eternally alive. Before we accept the gift of God’s grace, we are dead, living in the state of sin that separates us from God and keeps us from eternal life. Until we address the matter of our sinful nature, we are not eligible to receive the inheritance God has for us, because we have not fulfilled the very basic qualification—being alive.

Upon fulfilling the requirement of being alive, God’s grace does its further work by making us family. By His grace, we are adopted into the family of God, making us co-heirs with Jesus for His inheritance (Romans 8:15-17).

So, what is the inheritance that eternal life qualifies us for?

Well, eternal life.

Eternal life achieves both establishing us as living children of God, eligible to receive His inheritance and being the inheritance itself. It is the means and the reward all rolled up into one—a God-given, two-for-one deal! Jesus’ resurrection from the dead assures us that the inheritance to be handed down would be significantly different from the inheritance handed down from earthly fathers to earthly surviving children. Let’s explore this some more.

Eternal life is kept in heaven for you (1 Peter 1:4)

Unlike earthly inheritances, it is certain. If a father on earth squanders all of his assets, the family may not receive any inheritance. As long as the father is alive, the inheritance is uncertain. Your God-given inheritance is certain. He’s already died and proven that eternal life is available through Him. Nothing can take that inheritance from you. It is kept in heaven for you! It’s a done deal.

Eternal life takes place in the Kingdom (Matthew 25:34)

God prepared the Kingdom of heaven for you before the foundation of the world. It’s always been there, it will always be there, and one day, His Kingdom will be returned to earth (Revelation 21:1-2). Those who are of His family, that have received His inheritance, will be administrators of His Kingdom. It will be a great responsibility filled with great purpose and joy! Can you imagine the joy of administering a Kingdom in which no death, mourning, crying, or pain exists (Revelation 21:4)?!

We can add to the riches of eternal life while here on earth (Matthew 6:19-21)

Jesus taught that when we focus our heart on things of eternal value, we lay ‘treasure in heaven.’ Our heart is a conduit, a channel or pathway through which the eternally valuable things we do here on earth are deposited into our ‘inheritance account’ in heaven.

God’s already done His part to guarantee that the inheritance will be there for us. We’ve got to do our part and then add to our inheritance each and every day. That’s the truth.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has given you a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, securing an inheritance for you that can never perish, spoil or fade. Where your heart is, there the treasure of this inheritance will be, kept in heaven for you.

The world is a mighty big place, and it is easy to get lost in it. You might feel anonymous among the masses and unnoticed amidst the noise. But God cuts through it all, reaching out to each one of us individually. You see, to God, the world is not a huge mass of humanity, but a glorious collection of unique and treasured individuals—and that includes you!

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:16 (NIV)

John 3:16 is probably the most familiar passage in the entire Bible. Familiarity can cause us to take something for granted. But since this passage expresses the fundamental truth about God’s plan for salvation, we certainly don’t want to take it for granted! So let’s explore the concepts of love and life and how they relate to God’s Son. Let’s renew the power of this oft-quoted passage.

The Bible tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8). He is the wellspring from which love flows. Love never ends (1 Corinthians 13: 7,8). Like God, it is eternal. So God’s love of the world isn’t reduced to a kind act performed a long time ago. No, He continually pours Himself out for us.

The Bible also tells us to accept God’s love and to love Him in return (1 John 4:19). In other words, since God loves you, love Him back! It works much like an electric circuit. When the circuit is broken, electricity will not flow. It’s the same with love. When we love God in return, the circuit is complete, and there is an endless flow of love between God and us (John 14:21). The Bible says we return God’s love in two ways—directly, by loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and indirectly, by loving others (Matthew 22:36-40). When we return God’s love, we become the embodiment and expression of His very nature. It sounds like an amazing place to be, doesn’t it? It is!

It’s called life. God invites us to have it!

But, alas, our circuit is broken. Sin causes the break in our circuit. And sin and death go hand in hand (Romans 6:23a). That’s the bad news. But there’s good news! God has made a way to complete the circuit! If we believe in God’s Son, Jesus, we can complete the circuit (Romans 6:23b). Believing in Jesus is more than just acknowledging that He exists. Believing in Him looks like this:

We admit that we sin.

We ask God to forgive our sins.

We turn away from our sins and seek to stop sinning.

We completely trust that Jesus came to earth to restore love and life to us—to repair the break in the circuit.

We completely trust and openly proclaim Jesus as the Lord of our life.

Repeat steps 1-5 over and over again, every day!

That’s the truth. And that’s good news! But there’s more! Inside every truth is the YouTruth. God personally invites you to repair the break in the circuit and become part of His true love, His true life, in Jesus.

For God pours out His endless loving nature upon you by giving His one and only Son for you, that if you believe in Him, you shall no longer be dead, but you shall be truly alive, an active part of the embodiment and expression of God’s loving nature now and for all eternity.